I’ll start with the news that the Bermuda Bridge Club raised the superb total of $2,625 for the Bermuda Society for the Blind during its Charity week — the money came from table fees and donations which were then matched by the Club. Well done to all the organisers and players for this great initiative!

The last of the Spring tournaments, the Open Teams will have ended last night at the Club and I will bring you the full results next week together with the result of the ACBL International Fund game which was held on the morning of May 14th.

That is pretty much it for the tournament schedule …. there is a Workshop on the Jacoby 2NT bid at the Club on May 21st which should be interesting.

As I have written many times in this column, at bridge one must keep giving the opponents a chance to go wrong and more often than not, they will! Declarer on today’s hand was an experienced player and it showed in the way he played the hand.

Love All. Dealer South

(Spades / Hearts / Diamonds / Clubs)

North: K1095 / J843 / 752 / A8

East: 82 / Q102 / K863 / Q1052

South: AQJ / AK76 / A10 / K743

West: 7643 / 95 / QJ94 / J96

South opened 2NT showing 21-23, North bid 3 clubs asking for a 4 card major and South showed his heart suit. North now got a little carried away and cue bid 4 Clubs, South bid 4 Diamonds and North made a hopeful leap to six hearts! West led the diamond queen and South realised that he needed something good to happen!

He won the Ace and tried the Ace King of hearts but the queen didn’t drop. The contract now depended on declarer being able to get his losing diamond away on the spade before the defender with the trump ruffed in. If spades are 3-3 there is no problem, or if the defender with the heart queen has the long spade that also works … none of that works here but declarer hatched a great plan!

He played the Ace of spades, then the jack overtaking with the king and then played the spade 10 looking for all the world like a man taking a ruffing finesse against the queen. When East fell for this and discarded a diamond declarer was home! He won the queen, crossed to the club Ace and played the last spade, East was helpless as no matter what he did declarers diamond was going away.

Should East have fallen for it? No way! Firstly, where are declarer’s points? East had 7 points himself, dummy had 8 and partner had already shown 3 with the QJ of diamonds …..that left only 22 points which meant that the spade queen had to be with declarer. Also, on the spades West should play high-low to show 4 spades which meant declarer had to have 3, another clue!

Despite all that, kudos to declarer for giving East a chance to go wrong — without his play the hand had no chance at all.